Action, blood, inappropriate groping, and mystery. I think these accurately depict the essence of Nanatsu no Taizai. This anime has a surplus helping from each of these categories, and that’s what brings us back week after week. This week Episode 12 aired, which means we have reached the halfway mark of season one. With that in mind let’s recap the best moments, so far. Starting with:
5. Pork Hawk on the run (Episode 8)
This show has many great comedic scenes, but this happens to be my personal favorite. Holy Knight Guila manages to find a way into the Capital of the Dead.
She sneaks up on Meliodas and the others and quickly starts to attack. Meliodas tells Hawk to take Elizabeth and run away as far as he can. Hawk takes off sprinting with Elizabeth on top of him.
The scene changes a few times as Hawk crosses over several different kinds of crystalline terrain. The whole time they’re on the run Hawk is chanting and pumping himself up. He even has a short conversation with Elizabeth about how dangerous Guila seems.
All in all, the show spends a good 25 seconds just showing them running away from the fight. Then, just as Elizabeth says, “Maybe we went a little too far…”, Meliodas is sent flying into a giant crystal wall right next to them. He starts to pull himself out when he notices the two standing near him. He looks angrily at them and asks, “What are you still doing here?”
4. Throwing the Spear (Episode 2)
These couple of scenes are great because you get to see two strong characters show off their strength. First is the Holy Knight Gilthunder.
He asks for the coordinates of the town where Meliodas is rumored to be (7.3 miles away). Then, he asks for a spear from one of his subordinates. He imbues it with lightning and then hurls it into the sky. It slowly fades away, but immediately Meliodas senses that something is coming his way.
He walks outside and stands where the spear is going to land. He puts his hand it to catch it, but the momentum of the spear carries him over a cliff and sends him smashing through several buildings before he can finally stop it completely.
Now, it’s Meliodas’ turn. He throws it right back towards Gilthunder’s direction. A few seconds later it reaches the tower where Gilthunder is calmly sitting on a throne. The whole tower explodes and turns into rubble. As the dust settles, you see the spear stuck in the throne near Gilthunder’s head. His cheek slightly bloody from where the spear grazed him.
3. Breaking out of the gem (Episode 12)
This had to make the list as one of the most impressive moments because it was the cliffhanger we were given in the middle of the season. However, it also strongly hints that there is more to Meliodas than what we’ve been shown so far.
Hendricksen gave Veronica a gem called the Goddess Amber. It reacts to any demon energy that is close by. She uses it on Meliodas. It activates and imprisons him within the gem. A few moments later Elizabeth screams for Meliodas to save her.
Suddenly, the gem starts glowing and then shatters. A lot of purple energy escapes and Ban has a short flashback of the red demon he encountered at the Fountain of Youth. The scene quickly changes back to the center of the energy where Meliodas comes into focus.
Half of his body is covered in purple markings (similar to the one we’ve seen on his forehead before) and he has a bewildered look on his face. I’ll discuss this in more detail later on.
2. Meliodas and Ban’s rematch (Episode 11)
These two are arguably the strongest characters we’ve been introduced to so far. Obviously, we wanted to see a good match between them.
When they first met Meliodas punched Ban through a wall in order to break him out of prison. Meliodas declared himself the winner of this short brawl. Ban was surprised by this person’s strength and immediately grew to respect him. Ever since that time, he’d been looking for a rematch. He finally got it at the Byzel Fight Festival.
We saw some good, powerful exchanges between these two men. We also got our first view of Ban’s “Snatch” ability. It allows him to steal the speed and power of his opponent.
Slowly, Ban was powering up while Meliodas was becoming sluggish. But, just as Ban landed a decisive blow Meliodas countered with a punch of his own that sent Ban flying out of the ring and won him the match.
The crowd couldn’t quite see what happened. But, Diane revealed that in that instant a mysterious mark appeared on Meliodas’ forehead (the same one that’s appeared a few times this season) and a strange aura was emanating from him.
1. Meliodas and Ban’s Reunion (Episode 6)
All of the Seven Deadly Sins separated after the mysterious events that occurred around the time of Zaratras’ death. Ten years later Elizabeth meets Meliodas and they embark on the journey to reunite the seven knights. Ban was in prison for most of that time. He believed Meliodas to be dead, so he stopped caring about life. Jump to the moment Meliodas reunites with Ban at Baste Dungeon.
There is a moment of tension as the two recognize each other. Nobody knows what will happen. Diane thinks they’re about to fight so she tells Hawk to hide behind her. Just then, Meliodas and Ban put on some super kawaii faces and run towards each other.
They start laughing and high five each other. Ban then hits Meliodas and sends him flying through several dungeon walls. Meliodas returns the favor by headbutting him in the stomach.Then an arm wrestling match starts.
They’re so strong that their energy waves start collapsing the dungeon around them. The whole thing turns into dust. What makes the scene funnier is that before this took place the dungeon was actually reinforced by the Holy Knight Golgius.
He used an incantation ball to create an Eternal Seal Spell. Which according to him, “Even ten tyrant dragons would be unable to destroy this magical containment barrier.”
So, those are the top 5 moments from this first half of the season. With so many great moments already, what do we have to look forward to? I’m glad you asked. Obviously, there will be many more comical moments and battles. But, I want to focus your attention on the actual narrative. There are still so many unanswered questions. Such as:
Who really killed Zaratras?
Who is the green haired man shown reading a book to Gowther (Episode 11)?
Who took Diane’s sacred treasure from the fighting festival?
Why don’t the Seven Deadly Sins wear their armor like all the other knights?
Why did the King of Liones (Elizabeth’s father) give the Seven Deadly Sins sacred treasures?
And most importantly, what kind of demon is Meliodas?
We know that Meliodas has demon energy otherwise the Goddess Amber would not have reacted to him. It appeared as if he was in the middle of transforming into a demon when he escaped the gem.
Plus, Ban felt a similar aura from Meliodas that he felt from the red demon. It was also hinted that Meliodas knew that he himself was not human.
In the flashback of the first meeting between Meliodas and Ban, one of the prison guards says, Ban “...is not human,” to which Meliodas responds, “I see. What a coincidence.” That’s my interpretation of the mystery surrounding him.
The Seven Deadly Sins Official Trailer
So, you’ve read my thoughts on this season. What were your favorite moments? Do you have any theories for the questions up above? I’m interested in hearing what you think. Please comment below with your thoughts.
